Behind the Volcanoes

Loss of loved ones, war, grief. Transformation. Healing. Life at the edge of the ridge, a new view behind the volcanoes. Memorable and haunting. With compassion and an unblinking eye, Jules Nyquist's poems in her new collection Behind the Volcanoes, explores love and loss, life and death with poignant intimacy. Marilyn Stablein, Author of Splitting Hard Ground and Sleeping in Caves Reading Jules Nyquist is the equivalent of turning one street corner after another, because you never know what awaits you around the bend. It's not just the way she sometimes ends a line or stanza with chest emptying honesty or ferocity of wit, it's the potluck of human condition that you would find on any corner in downtown Minneapolis. Though I am a fan of "sticking the landing," of which Nyquist is a pro, some of my favorite moments in Behind the Volcanoes are the deft narratives of mortality and renaissance. - Hakim Bellamy, Inaugural Poet Laureate of Albuquerque